title: Incidence of cardiovascular events after hospital admission for pneumonia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Several studies have suggested an increased risk of cardiovascular events, primarily acute myocardial infarction, around the time of hospital admission for pneumonia. Therefore, we examined cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, unstable angina, stroke, and serious cardiac arrhythmias, within 90 days after hospitalization for pneumonia.
  
  
  METHODS
  By using data from the administrative databases of the Department of Veterans Affairs, we examined a cohort of subjects hospitalized with pneumonia between October 2001 and September 2007. Subjects were at least 65 years of age. We examined the incidence of myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, unstable angina, and stroke by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes, excluding those with a diagnosis before the admission for pneumonia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cohort comprised 50,119 subjects with a mean age of 77.5 years (standard deviation 6.7 years), 98% of whom were male. The 90-day incidence of cardiovascular events was 1.5% for myocardial infarction, 10.2% for congestive heart failure, 9.5% for arrhythmia, 0.8% for unstable angina, and 0.2% for stroke. The majority of events occurred during the hospitalization for pneumonia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A clinically important number of subjects in this cohort had a cardiovascular event within 90 days of hospital admission, suggesting that such events may have an important role in post-pneumonia mortality. Additional research is needed to determine whether interventions may reduce the number of cardiovascular events after pneumonia.
authors.affiliation: VERDICT/South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, USA.
authors.forename: Theodore W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Mary Jo V
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Pugh
authors.forename: Grant W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Waterer
authors.forename: Brandy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.forename: Carlos J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Orihuela
authors.forename: Laurel A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Copeland
authors.forename: Marcos I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Restrepo
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anzueto
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Mortensen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000789:Angina, Unstable / Q000453:epidemiology; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000453:epidemiology; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers